“It’s not great for the industry. It’s a rough and tumble world out there. We take it really seriously. We take privacy and security and cheating and hacking all very seriously. It’s been a high priority for us,” he said.

But when asked point blank whether Xbox had been subjected to any attacks, Whitten fudged his answer a little bit.

He was clear in saying that there was nothing unusual to report to customers.

“We continue to take it really seriously,” he said, but added that my question was “weird.”

A spokesperson intervened to clarify — or at least try to. He said in order “to protect the integrity of the system, we don’t share information because we want to keep it secure.”

In the meantime, if there are any remaining concerns, vigilance is the answer.

“It’s always been a top priority for us,” Whitten said. “Every time we see things — not just because it’s Sony in the videogame space — we try to do post-mortem. That’s part of the learning cycle.”

He said it also serves as a reminder to consumers to “practice safe hygiene on the Internet,” by not using the same username and password for all of your accounts. “One of the things it reminds us of, is that there’s nothing inherently special about Sony.”

AllThingsD by Writer

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